Odette Smith, 8, holds her clay props. The second-grader from West Hills STEM Academy won a state prize for the Reflections art contest for her stop-motion video about her two cats that travel to the White House to meet the president.
LARRY STEAGALL / KITSAP SUN

"An Illuminated Kiss," by Colleen Sawyer, a Bremerton High School freshman, earned an Award of Merit in the "senior" visual arts division of the state PTA Reflections art contest.

BREMERTON - Once upon a time, Bruno the cat went to the White House with his friend Reginald. President Barack Obama came out and offered the two cats a cookie, and they all went inside. The end.

This imaginary journey — immortalized in a stop-action video — was the brainchild of Odette Smith, 8, a student at West Hills STEM Academy. The video, inspired by Odette's own pets, won an Award of Excellence in Washington State PTA's Reflections fine arts contest.

"Bruno Meets the President" is one of five contest entries from Kitsap students that earned state-level awards in the annual contest. Other local winners are Arden Handy, 9, also from West Hills; Colleen Sawyer, 14, a freshman at Bremerton High School; William Kirby, 7, of Emerald Heights Elementary School in Central Kitsap; and Ethan Edwards, 7, of Olalla Elementary School in South Kitsap.

Reflections, organized by volunteers at each school, involves thousands of schoolchildren from across the state.

"It seems like it's a pretty great thing. I wish more people knew about it," said Caroline Rankin, Odette's mother. Contestants are judged within four age groups and in six categories: literature, music composition, photography, visual arts, film/video and choreography/dance. Once entries reach the state level, the state PTA might select up to four entries in each of the six categories to submit to the National PTA Reflections competition. This year's theme was "The Magic of a Moment."

Rankin thinks art is "incredibly relevant" but that current education trends — including an emphasis on science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM — might be nudging fine arts to the academic back burner.

The state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction considers the arts — dance, music, theater and visual arts — a core academic subject, with specific learning standards at all age levels. A minimum of one credit of fine art is a state high school graduation requirement, and districts must have arts "assessments or other strategies" in place in all grades to demonstrate students' mastery of learning standards, said Anne Banks, OSPI's program supervisor for the arts.

In the trenches, however, time and money are limiting factors.

"Students in my class love art and are always begging for more," said Liza Piper, Odette's teacher in West Hills' Montessori program. "Unfortunately, there is little time left in the day after teaching the core subjects, so many times, I plan art lessons and I don't get to them until we complete other work."

And the pressure is likely to increase as state schools incorporate national Common Core standards for education and other changes stemming from education reform. Whether funding for the arts improves under the Legislature's proposals to "fully fund" K-12 education is yet to been seen.

"It's a tough balance," said Lucita Flores, co-chairwoman of Central Kitsap School District's Reflections contest. "I can understand them wanting to expand science and math, and I agree with that."

But, Flores says, fostering creativity also is important, and innovation is a critical part of scientific discovery.

Competition for resources among different disciplines is nothing new, said Steve Priest, who teaches drawing, painting and printmaking at Bremerton High School.

"It's always a money crunch. It's always kind of a money roller coaster," said Priest, who added that his school administrators do a good job of supporting the arts.

Priest subscribes to an emerging nationwide movement to incorporate art seamlessly into core curricula. Called STEAM for "science, technology, engineering, art and math," the updated version of STEM is championed by Rhode Island School of Design and, according to the STEAM website, has been widely adopted by institutions, corporations and individuals.

Priest recently combined engineering with visual art in a project that challenged his students to create works of "wearable art."

Elsewhere, teachers are learning to combine art with other subjects, including the humanities, math and science.

Piper, for example, has planned a lesson where students will create a Jasper Johns-style map of the United States. Olalla Elementary students will work with South Kitsap High School art students to create a salmon mural at their school. The project dovetails with the district's elementary salmon life-cycle science program.

"Art is an opportunity for all our students to be inspired and creative and excited about learning," Olalla Principal Kristi Rivera said. "Sometimes, students need art to be able to express themselves."